Searching for Etan Patz – The 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan helped trigger a national movement focusing on missing children. Here is the New York Police Department's original poster for Etan, who went missing May 25, 1979, a block from his SoHo home. He was walking to the school bus stop by himself for the first time when he disappeared.

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Photos:Searching for Etan Patz

Searching for Etan Patz – After more than 30 years, a break in the case appeared to develop in April 2012 when police closed off two blocks in New York's SoHo neighborhood and searched a basement in the area for clues. But the search came up empty.

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Photos:Searching for Etan Patz

Searching for Etan Patz – On April 20, 2012, New York police and FBI agents removed concrete slabs from a basement in search of clues in the 33-year-old disappearance of Etan. The basement is about a half-block from where the boy's family still lives.

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Photos:Searching for Etan Patz

Searching for Etan Patz – A note from Stan Patz, Etan's father, pleads for privacy from the media during renewed interest in the 33-year-old case in April 2012. The boy's parents have not commented on the new developments in the case.

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Photos:Searching for Etan Patz

Searching for Etan Patz – Etan was officially declared dead in 2001. His disappearance was the first of several high-profile cases that catapulted concern about missing children to the forefront of national consciousness.

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Story highlights

The commissioner say police didn't talk to Hernandez, yet sources say they did

One source says Hernandez even confessed, but his claims weren't believed

Hernandez is charged with murder, though there's no physical evidence linking him

His attorney says no plea has been entered due to a pending psychiatric evaluation

A day after Pedro Hernandez was charged in the killing of 6-year-old Etan Patz, prosecutors now face the task of corroborating his confession and piecing together a mystery that's confounded investigators for more than three decades.

33 years of mystery in Etan Patz case

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New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said earlier this week that authorities interviewed other employees of the store Hernandez worked at, but not him. "I can't tell you why," Kelly said.

Yet two law enforcement sources said Hernandez was in fact interviewed, albeit briefly. A third source said Hernandez not only talked to police, but he confessed -- though he was ruled out as a suspect, because his claims weren't believed.

At a recent news conference announcing Hernandez' arrest, Kelly said Hernandez had no prior contact with the boy, and that investigators have not uncovered any forensic evidence linking Hernandez to the disappearance of the Etan, whose body still has not been found.

Former SoHo resident Roberto Monticello, who says he knew Hernandez at the time of Etan's disappearance, called the former stock clerk a "very strange guy."

"He was always by himself," Monticello recalled to CNN affiliate NY1. "(I) never saw him with people."

Etan went missing on May 25, 1979, a block from his home in Manhattan after walking to a school bus alone for the first time.

His disappearance helped spawn a national movement to raise awareness of missing children, including the then-novel approach of putting an image of the child's face on thousands of milk cartons.

The tipster whose information led to Hernandez's arrest contacted authorities last month after news coverage of their renewed search. That contact, at least in part, prompted investigators to question Hernandez.

Police Commissioner Kelly said earlier this week described Hernandez's actions as a crime of opportunity and said the suspect was remorseful.

"The detectives thought (the confession) was a feeling of relief on his part," Kelly said.

After that confession, investigators spent two days talking to witnesses and looking for anyone who could discredit Hernandez and couldn't find any, according to a source with knowledge of the case.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance ultimately gave the green light to file murder charges against Hernandez based largely on his confession, even given the lack of physical evidence and questions about his mental state, the source said.

The next major step in the legal process would be for a grand jury to hear prosecutors' evidence against Hernandez for a potential indictment, after the defense waived its right to an expedited indictment on Friday. It is not clear when this might happen.

Etan was officially declared dead in 2001 as part of a lawsuit filed by his family against Jose Antonio Ramos, a drifter and convicted child molester acquainted with Etan's babysitter.

A judge found Ramos responsible for the boy's death and ordered him to pay the family $2 million, money the Patz family has never received.

Although Ramos was considered a key focus of the investigation for years, he has never been charged in the case. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania for molesting another boy and is set to be released this year.